September 30
An appreciation of Flash games and how they shaped the gaming industry. Adobe is ending support for Flash Player at the end of 2020.
"Loose Ends is a literary supercut made entirely out of last lines from 152 science fiction and fantasy novels." It functions as both "short story and data analysis".
Let Go or Be Dragged. "Why are you now somewhere you never wanted to go? How did you get here? Why are you bleeding from your soul? It's because your belief about letting go kept you being dragged."
September 29
The pandemic has revealed the limitations of America's cult of individual freedom (vs collective action), stranding its citizens with few good choices. "Our only liberty is to choose among a menu of awful options."
Tips for avoiding Covid-19 infections indoors: avoid unnecessary exposure, open windows, filter the air, and smartly increase airflow w/ fans. Avoid gimmicks like "air cleaners" and UV lights. "The reality is, it's a time for the basics."
More than 1.1 million people have already voted in the 2020 US general election. In states reporting party affiliation (FL, IA, NC), participation is 54% Dem and 18% Rep (it's usually the other way around).
Andy Baio responds to a reader who's disappointed by the uptick of political content on his personal website. I've gotten many emails like this over the past few years; Andy's response is a good one.
Listening to Ella Fitzgerald lovingly impersonate Louis Armstrong in this clip is just so wonderful.
September 28
The NY Times obtained two decades of Trump's tax returns and they show exactly what we already knew: chronic losses, huge debt, and tax avoidance. I have a hard time believing these revelations will matter to voters.
September 25
The Marshall Project and Vox take a close look at US crime statistics over the past several months. "Something to know about crime trends: They are shaped by police action and inaction."
From an American living there, a report on how Vietnam beat back a second wave of Covid-19 infections. They used localized lockdowns, test/trace/isolate everywhere else, and the gov't has been clear and transparent in their actions and goals.
Governor Newsom announced that California will ban the sale of gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks in 2035. Good news but make it 2025 and then you'd have something.
September 24
Tonight at 8pm ET: a livestreamed recording of Prince's New Year's Eve Benefit Concert from 1987 at Paisley Park. Prince fan @anildash says: "An amazing show, with perhaps Prince's best live band...and *then* Miles Davis shows up."
Fig/wasp codependent evolution is fascinating. "There are more than seven hundred species of fig, and each one has its own species of wasp. When you eat a dried fig, you're probably chewing wasp mummies, too."
September 23
The World's Most Expensive Potato Chips Will Run You $15 Per Chip. The phrase "hand-picked" comes up more than once in the description...
September 22
Scenes from movies where characters are listening to music with headphones but they're listening to podcasts instead. The Baby Driver / Serial one is so good.
The Overlooked History of Race Barriers in the United States. Physical segregation walls and race barriers were built in cities & towns around America to separate white neighbors from Black neighborhoods and many of them still exist today.
Gig Economy Company Launches Uber, But for Evicting People. "Civvl aims to make it easy for landlords to hire process servers and eviction agents as gig workers."
William Gibson asks what the collective weight is of all the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the world. Various guesstimates are presented in the thread; a rough consensus seems to be on the order of grams?
September 21
The Root 100, a list of the most influential African Americans in 2020. Lots of bold-faced names (Nikole Hannah-Jones, Yamiche Alcindor, Ibram X. Kendi, Issa Rae) but spend some time getting to know the folks farther down the list too.
September 17
Back in early April, the USPS had a plan to send free face masks to every household in America. The White House blocked it. This would have saved many lives and prevented many severe infections.
Former model Amy Dorris says that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in 1997. This makes at least 2 dozen women to come forward with sexual assault and rape accusations against Trump.
The American Ornithological Society just renamed the McCown's Longspur as the Thick-billed Longspur and faces pressure to reevaluate other names. "You shouldn't just put an apostrophe and call it your bird – that's not how this should be working."
September 16
A great piece by model Emily Ratajkowski about the ownership of one's image. "The problem with justice, or even the pursuit of justice, in the U.S. is that it costs. A lot."
A very entertaining story about finding out the personal info of a former Australian PM just from an Instagram boarding pass pic. "If Tony Abbott's passport number is in this treasure trove of computer spaghetti, maybe there's wayyyyy more..."
Months into the pandemic, some consumer goods are still difficult to find. "The coronavirus has eaten away at the entire system by which things are bought and sold in America, and few signs of improvement are on the horizon."
September 15
David Byrne's American Utopia is coming to HBO in the form of a "concert film" directed by Spike Lee. Friends who saw the Broadway version of this said it was amazing.
Selling these ineffectual, poor-fitting paper masks (even with a disclaimer) is irresponsible and dangerous. Please stop this @moo.
For the first time in the 175-year history of Scientific American, the magazine is endorsing a presidential candidate: Joe Biden. "The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people."
September 14
SARS-CoV-2 is mutating much more slowly than other RNA viruses – no major mutations have shown up so far. The virus infects humans so easily that there's little evolutionary pressure to change.
September 11
On the "gentrification font" (Neutraface and similar typefaces). "Sleek sans serif numbers are now the official look of neighborhood change."
The Sturgis Biker Rally Did Not Cause 266,796 Cases of COVID-19. "While some underlying factors do predict spread, there is a high degree of randomness, and small disturbances (like winds) can cause huge variation across time and space."
Your gentle reminder that @kottke has an official daily podcast now. "In just 15 minutes, the coolest stuff that happened in the world today." Check it out here.
Your Phone Wasn't Built for the Apocalypse. "Images and videos have never captured the world as it really is — they simply create a new understanding of that world from the light that emits from and reflects off of objects."
September 10
A trailer for a documentary called My Octopus Teacher. "A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest."
Imagined commercials from brands responding to increasingly dire circumstances. "As the US becomes a dictatorship, Subway is here for you. That's right, we're bringing back the $5 Footlong."
Congrats to @austinkleon for 15 years of blogging! "This is my home online. It's where you can find me. If you want to know me, knock on the door, and I'll let you in."
September 9
Cory Doctorow is selling the DRM-free audiobook version of his new book directly to listeners, bypassing Audible and their DRM. "The idea that a company gets to decide how you use your property, after you buy it from them? Fuck that."
I cannot get over all the photos of the orange & red skies on the west coast today. Apocalyptic is the only way to put it.
We're All Socially Awkward Now. Those of us who have limited our in-person social contact over the past months are "subtly but inexorably losing our facility and agility in social situations".
September 8
"Another underappreciated part of the USPS? Its exceptional design." The Post Office has a long legacy of getting top designers to produce great work.
No, The Government Did Not Break Up A Child Sex Trafficking Ring In Georgia. "Simple headlines obscure the complex realities of abuse, sex work and the real threats to American children."
September 4
September 3
LIGO has detected a surprising event: the collision of two black holes that are each too big to have formed by the collapse of a star. "The black holes in this event aren't supposed to exist!"
COVID-19 Can Wreck Your Heart, Even if You Haven't Had Any Symptoms. This will probably lead to many premature deaths over the next several decades.
Very excited that my pal Brian Bartels' book, The United States of Cocktails, is coming out next week! "This book includes more than 100 recipes alongside spirited analysis of each state's unique contributions to cocktail culture."
Back in March, police in Rochester, NY murdered Daniel Prude. They put a hood over his head and suffocated him until he laid lifeless in the street. DEFUND THE POLICE. We don't need armed men showing up to deal with mental health crises!
"Some cops give their friends and family union-issued 'courtesy cards' to help get them out of minor infractions. The cards embody everything wrong with modern policing." Every time I read about these cards, I get more angry.
September 2
Great piece by Elamin Abdelmahmoud: Why Chadwick Boseman's Death Hurts So Much. "To concern yourself with who your heroes are is to construct a story about who you are. Boseman transformed himself into a portal for these questions."
September 1
Netflix is doing a TV series based on The Three-Body Problem book series. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones) and True Blood's Alexander Woo will direct. Author Liu Cixin and translator Ken Liu will serve as consulting producers.
I am an unabashed fan of Noah Kalina's chickens (and Marcel the rooster!), so of course I immediately bought Tiny Flock, a book of photographs he's taken of his flock.